W. E. Norris Quotes

I have found no better way than to value and savor the sacredness of daily living, to rely on repetition, the humdrum rhythm which heals and steadies.

Within each of us, there is a silence, a silence as vast as the universe. And when we experience that silence, we remember who we are.

My life will always have dirty dishes. If this sink can become a place of contemplation, let me learn constancy here.

When we sit in stillness, we are profoundly active.

We can't give our children the future, strive though we may to make it secure. But we can give them the present.

The often heard lament, 'I have so little time,' gives the lie to the delusion that the daily is of little significance.

Over and over again mediocrity is promoted because real worth isn't to be found.

I write what I would like to read.

When you come to a place where you have to left or right, go straight ahead.

The High Plains, the beginning of the desert West, often act as a crucible for those who inhabit them.

To be an American is to move on, as if we could outrun change. To attach oneself to place is to surrender to it, and suffer with it.

Poets and monks... We're both sort of peripheral to the world.

In middle age we are apt to reach the horrifying conclusion that all sorrow, all pain, all passionate regret and loss and bitter disillusionment are self-made

Any life lived attentively is disillusioning as it forces us to know us as we are.

It's all so beautiful . . . the spring . . . and books and music and fires. . . . Why aren't they enough?

Traversing a slow page, to come upon a lode of the pure shining metal is to exult inwardly for greedy hours.

There are men I could spend eternity with. But not this life.

When you are unhappy, is there anything more maddening than to be told that you should be contented with your lot?

Science is a set of rules that keep the scientists from lying to each other.

The English language is full of words that are just waiting to be misspelled, and the world is full of sticklers, ready to pounce.

Punctuation is a deeply conservative club. It hardly ever admits a new member.

The dictionary is a wonderful thing, but you can't let it push you around.

Commas, like nuns, often travel in pairs.

Everybody is a writer. Everybody uses e-mail and has Facebook pages and tweets.

The comma, if it's left out, sometimes can be a problem. There's a slogan on a T-shirt going around that "Let's Eat, Grandma," and "Let's Eat Grandma."

There is a phase in the life of every copy editor when she is obsessed with hyphens.

On the printed page, it's best to have everything - you know, to still mind your P's and Q's, dot your I's and cross your T's, yes.

Nobody knows everything-one of the pleasures of language is that there is always something new to learn-and everybody makes mistakes.

If you really want your kids to fly, you don't put stones in their pockets.

You can't expect someone who has been in prison his whole entire life to turn around and become a sweet guy who writes books and walks his dog and has a normal life.

Your leadership depends on you. You can only be a great leader when you can lead yourself well first.

A drop of hope can create an ocean, but a bucket of faith can create an entire world.

I'm proud by not being frustrated, jealous or too confused by remaining creative. It's very easy to give up, and to keep going and sticking to your own ethos is very difficult.

My proudest accomplishment is my daughter Ella. Because she is a great person, great personality. She not really my accomplishment, she is her own, but I had something to do with it.

I'd like to be remembered for music that moves people, that takes them some place else, that means something to them, reminds them of a good time or place, some memory, some positive moment.

Do it yourself. Keep going. Many people have said these things to me many times and both are good pieces of advice. I like getting on with things.

I can't function without coffee and I cannot refuse chocolate. Drink I gave up years ago and don't miss it in the slightest. But I think I'd collapse without coffee.

Anglers may be divided into almost as many genera and species as the fish they catch, and engage in the sport from as many impulses.

For the true angler, fishing produces a deep,unspoken joy, born of longing for that which is quiet and peaceful, and fostered by an inbred love of communing with nature

What pretty bright trout there are in this bold rock creek! It would full be called a river in England, and so it is!

Philosophy is the critically reflective, systematically articulated attempt to illumine our human experience in depth and set it in a vision of the whole.

How you spend your time is more important than how you spend your money. Money mistakes can be corrected, but time is gone forever.

MANAGE YOUR MOOD: Name 1 thing that surprised you today...Name 1 thing that moved you...Name 1 thing that inspired you...

... the more I seek, the less I find.

be who you set out to be...

The scientific method is nothing more than a system of rules to keep us from lying to each other.

Just the knowledge that a good book is awaiting one at the end of a long day makes that day happier.

Whatever you think you are, you are always bigger than that...

Raise the bar higher than your opinion...

Why, the club was just the quietest place in the world, a place where a woman could run in to brush her hair and wash her hands, and change her library book, and have a cup of tea.